We moved during the middle of my first grade year, from Elmore (AL) to Huntsville (AL). In Elmore we lived in a dollhouse, or at least that's what it looked like. I had the only bedroom on the bottom floor with a window that opened onto the front porch. It was Fabulous!! I could open the window and swing my legs out onto the porch while listening to Casey's Top 40 on my very own radio! How cool is that? I don't remember much about the school. We rode the bus, I had to change classrooms because my room had too many white kids in it and we had to be spread around, and that's all I can tell you about that school. But I do remember that right before we left, my mother set up a real tea party for me and my friends so that we could say goodbye.

And then we moved to Huntsville. A beautiful little house in a neighborhood filled with kids just ready to be my friends. The next door neighbor had a plum tree and was always ready to share. We had a beautiful cocker spaniel named Betsy's who we all loved! I found new and interesting ways to keep my mother amused and busy, such as droping bubble gum into my freshly permed hair. Memories float in and out about the last half of my first grade year, but meeting my best friend is something I'll never forget. Met in the first grade and we're still in contact today. And not only were we best friends, but her older brother and my older brother were best friends too and our parents all liked each other!! Now that doesn't happen every day, but I'm glad it did!

It's hard to talk about first grade, or any other grade, without talking about my brother too. He was Jay then and J now but he's always been my  brother. We've been the best of friends and the fiercest adversaries and always loved each other. We've both put our parents through our own versions of hell, but life was simple when I was in the first grade and we didn't know what real trouble was. I really do feel sorry for anyone out there who didn't have a sibling like I have. Just older enough that he could teach me things that I probably didn't need to know, but close enough to be my friend. Someone to laugh with, someone to fuss with, someone to tell me the things I don't remember, and someone to commiserate with the things I do remember!

I'm glad I'm not there, 7 years old, anymore, but it was great, and I wouldn't change a thing!

Life Before School

Ok. This is hard. Pre-school and kindergarten?? I hardly remember yesterday!!

So this will be the stories that I've been told so many times, they might as well be my memories.

I was a pink kitty. But before I was a pink kitty, I wanted a pink kitty. And then since I couldn't have a pink kitty, I decided that my dad was a pink kitty. My dad was amused. He played along. There I was throwing an all out fit at the grocery store with my mother because she wouldn't buy my daddy cat food. After she made me a pink kitty costume, I became the kitty. Spent entire days only meowing. When that got old, mom set my supper on the floor and told me that little kitties eat on the floor not on the table. That cured me.

I remember naptime at KinderCare. I had a blanket to sleep on while other kids had mats. I would ask to "borrow" little boys mats and then "fall asleep" on them. But I almost always faked the nap. If you didn't nap, you got a frowny face stamp on your hand. Manipulating boys and sleep from a young age...

I was a member of a very exclusive choir, the Cat Choir. We would sing all of our favorite songs minus the lyrics with the addition of meowing. Looking back, oh my stars! how annoying!!! But my dad, my brother, and I thought it was fabulous. Poor mom!

And I remember books! Always lots and lots of books!! Apparently that's the only time I would sit still, when I was being read to. This started my love affair with reading! And if we weren't reading, we were listening to music. And playing! No one could play like my mom! But I didn't like her coloring in my coloring book; she didn't always stay within the lines. 

Poor mom, I was hard on her! I was a busy, busy child always getting into misadventures- gum in the hair, gum in the eyebrows, stealing Atomic Fire Balls, scratching the paint on my dad's car and blaming God (my defence-God made my hand do it), loose powder on a dark velvet dress, lotion for the freshly groomed dog, painting my self with bright red lipstick, and the list goes on and on.

I was a handful then, and I don't think that I'm any less of one now!

Me, Part 1

First of all, we have to get one thing straight.

 I was not born.

 I was surgically extracted. And yes, my parents found it amusing to have a little girl who would say that to anyone who asked when my birthday was. So I proudly celebrate a "surgical extraction" day rather than a boring old "birth day."

I was extracted in USAFA, Colorado (that's the United States Air Force Academy Base.) There was snow on the ground and a deer outside my mother's window. Unlike my big brother who wasn't coming into this world easily or happily, I was a delightful little surgical procedure. Well, maybe not so little, but delightful nonetheless. Might also be the last time I was easy for my mother.

Now for the name- Charlotte Anne Lambirth McFetridge.

That's a mouthful. It also implies a certain regal-ness and gracefulness that I've never been able to achieve. Four names, and I don't go by any of them.

But it's a beautiful name and I love my name even with minor modifications due to marriage. My father chose my name for me, but my mom decided I'd be Annie.

Charlotte is in honor of my grandmother, Charlotte Buster. This woman is a light in my heart and a force of nature to be reckoned with. I was named well because I am very much like her in many good ways.

Anne came from my mother's name, Mollianne. I don't know why my dad decided that he should name me after my mom, but I always assume that it was out of great love and affection.

Lambirth was my dad's biological father's last name; he was adopted which is where the McFetridge came from.

I proudly (most of time) carried that name for 25 years. And thanks to my darling Forest, I am now Charlotte Anne Brown. Slightly shorter and a whole lot easier to say, especially over the phone.

I despised my folks at times for naming me one thing and calling me another. I was embarrassed by my first name frequently. But then I grew up and realized that my name is a thing of beauty and honors some of the people I love the most.

Annie suits me best, but I will always be Charlotte Anne.